New to us '00 10Ft CO Alaskan and question about camper jack extensions

[OregonOzzy]

After many years of enjoying an FWC Hawk and dreaming of graduating to an Alaskan, we have finally made it! Here is the new to us '00 10ft CO that the previous owner was kind enough to bring to our home.



Needs a few things and some modifications that we hope to get done over the next few months.
As the PO was unloading it (off his newish Ram3500) I noticed the rear tires going over the front tripod base (even though he had repositioned the base).
So question for you folks; the Alaskan will be going on a 2018 F-350 (single rear wheel). Having dealt with the Hawk on many different trucks when placing the camper, I would like to gain a few extra inches on the front jacks and avoid any chance of driving over the tripod base.
Reico Titan sells the Box Extension Mount for dually trucks:



I have not seen them in person but the pics make them look a bit light weight and without the side seams fully welded. Anyone know how thick the metal used is in the Reico Tital Box Extension?
I am thinking of using steel tube (4"x6") and can get 1/4" thick tubing way cheaper than the R-T Box Extension. Cut to size and 4 holes drilled should be good. Anyone done a similar jack extension? What material and thickness did you use?

Thanks and expect more questions as we discover the nuances of the Alaskan. Already evaluating the best platform set up to raise it above the Ford bed rails.

 

[popRoid]

OregonOzzy:

I have a 2017 F350 Dually with a 2018 10ft Alaskan Cabover mounted to the bed. I use the Reico Titan jacks with jack extension poles and the box extension mount to clear the dually fenders. Here's what I have learned using this system over the years: 1) Drop your rear tire pressure to 25lbs ( in my case of a dually it's the outside rear tires only)....this will allow the tire to "deform" as they roll up against the Reico Titan tripod jack feet but you need to spread the tripod legs out as much as possible so the rear tires clear the feet as much as possible. 2) The dually box extension I use to clear the dually rear fender will cause the side wall of the Alaskan camper to flex quite a bit (it's just physics with the leverage on the camper wall that the extension box causes) 3) Watching the camper wall flex using the dually box extension will stress you big time and i do wonder how many cycles of loading/unloading the camper before something unfortunate happens with the camper internal framing 4) Since you have a single rear wheel you really don't need the dually box extension unless you just feel more comfortable with the additional space between the jacks and your truck 5) I now use ....Sunex 10 ton jack stands with pins and 4x4 lumber runs go the length of the camper bottom to store the camper on which keeps it just a few inches higher than needed to load ...thus avoiding having to crank the Reico Titan jacks so much and flex that camper wall. You can get the Sunnex 10 ton jacks from Amazon. I'm about to unload my camper for the winter so I'll try to post some pictures of this in a week or so.

Congrats on that new camper.

Cheers...Lloyd

PS...that Reico Titan dually box extension is a robust piece of equipment and you will never have a problem with it's structural integrity.


https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0093NBRHA/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1

 

[OregonOzzy]

Lloyd, thank you for your advice and suggestions, especially the drop in tire pressure to flex the tire walls more. The truck has crazy wide non-OE size tires which are going to be taken off very soon and replaced with OE 275's. As you note, technically I should not have an issue with standard width camper jacks since it is a SRW truck, I just wanted a bit of extra room and not take a chance with scraping any paint. Will have to take it slow the first few times and take lots of measurements before starting. Your confirmation that the dually box extension from R-T is robust also helps. I can imagine any flex in that box will be transmitted into the camper and create a hairy situation and that is why I was looking for a heavier wall thickness extension. The Sunnex 10 ton jacks you linked look awesome. The PO gave me his 4 modified saw horses with 4 4x4 beams that help keep the camper at pretty much the truck bed height for me.

While still grappling with this situation, I came across this picture of a previous for sale ad where someone has done a similar jack extension using rectangle tube. Even more interesting is the base where looks like they have a plate welded to the bottom of the tube in place of the usual tripod. Avoids the issue of running over the legs with this flat surface area. Another possibility....

 

[dastrom]

Probably won't help you much but I used some cut offs of ipe wood that I had here and simply made my own. They were 2.5" thick which were enough for me with my single wheel Ford F150. Ipe is hard as a rock but is a rainforest wood and if you had to buy it may cost as much as the ones from Reico/Titan. Worked for me though.

 

[OregonOzzy]

dastrom, thank you for your reply. I had to look up what Ipe was (Brazilian Walnut is another name apparently - hard as rock!). Someone else did similar and used 4x4 fence post material. I am going to meet up with a metal fabricator after Holidays and figure out the plan. Thanks all for the ideas.

 

[Keith in Co]

Several years ago I made jack extensions for loading a 10’ CO on a dually truck so I could clear the rear fenders when loading. I used 2x2 steel angle, 1/8” wall. I no longer have them, but my recollection is that each extension was four pieces about 6” long. Two were parallel such that the other two, also parallel, were perpendicular to the first two. Laid out, they formed a square box which I welded inside and out. Drilled two holes on each end and fastened to the jacks with Grade 8 bolts. They never bent or flexed under load, and worked as intended.
hope this helps.

 

[OregonOzzy]

Closing out my original post here to help someone out in the future....
I ended up getting 3"x3" 5/16" square wall tubing (12" piece from Amazon was $39). Cut it up into 2 - 6" lengths, drilled 4 holes in each using the jack mounting holes as template.

Grade #8 bolts from ACE. Attached to the camper since we had 3 days of real sunshine in Oregon in a long time.

This gave me plenty of room to load the camper without driving the tires over the tripod. My truck is a 2018 F350 SRW with stock size wheel and tires. No issues with backing or making the camper look scary (though have lots of practice loading FWC in the past). I did mark the center line of the camper and tailgate to help align for the first time and made sure I had min 3" of clearance from bed to floor of camper and no chance of anything snagging (battery connection, electrical connections, etc).

Now the fun begins and more questions for all the experienced Alaskan members here.